Bats are quiet, David Peterson not sharp in Mets loss
Tyrone Taylor of the New York Mets breaks his bat while hitting against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the third inning on Tuesday. Credit: Getty Images/Christian Petersen
PHOENIX — Spectacular for about the first month of the season, the Mets seem now to have transitioned to a new phase: mediocrity.
Their 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night was filled with the hallmarks of such a run, from middling pitching to minimal hitting to an injury scare.
That put them at risk, heading into the season series finale with Arizona on Wednesday afternoon, of dropping a third consecutive set. Kodai Senga will face Merrill Kelly.
“You’re going to go through some ups and downs. We’ve played some tough games,” lefthander David Peterson said. “We’ve been battling every single game for nine innings. You win some, you lose some. The good thing about this team is everybody is able to take what happens today and flush it and come back tomorrow ready to compete.”
Overall, the Mets are positioned more than fine, 23-14 and in first place in the NL East. Over the past two weeks, they are 5-7 with zero series wins. It hasn’t been a nightmare, just a bit of water-treading, a step down from the charmed start. Consider it an ebb in the rhythms of a season.
Along the way, it has become easier to see the potential cracks that can threaten the foundation of a club over a six-month grind. What if Juan Soto doesn’t hit like Juan Soto? What if the bullpen stalwarts from a year ago aren’t still that? What if a flexible, stick-to-itive group of hitters succumbs to injuries, age and wear?
The Mets never were going to maintain their early-weeks pace. They always were going to encounter a stretch — or stretches — like this. What will matter most is how long it lasts and how they respond.
“It’s never going to be easy. That’s what makes the big leagues the big leagues,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “You’re going to go through stretches where you gotta find a way, you gotta fight. You’re going to go through some ups and downs. Overall, we’ve been right there on every game. The guys continue to compete. That’s what you want. Obviously, you want to come out on top — and we will. Nothing too concerning.”
Peterson allowed a season-high four runs in a season high-tying six innings. His 104 pitches were the second most by a Mets starter this year (and just the third time in 37 games that one of their pitchers reached triple digits). Tylor Megill totaled 105 on April 27.
The D-backs (19-17) jumped ahead with a two-run bottom of the fourth. That sequence started with Randal Grichuk shooting a hard ground ball toward third base, where it went through Mark Vientos’ legs for what was for some reason officially ruled a double. Then Eugenio Suarez walked. Both scored on groundouts.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. added a two-run homer to leftfield during Peterson’s 28-pitch sixth.
“Kind of a mixed bag,” Peterson said of his night.
The Mets managed a run off Arizona righty Zac Gallen only during his brief bout of wildness. With two outs and a runner on in the third, Gallen walked Francisco Lindor and Soto to load the bases, then walked Pete Alonso to force in a run. Starling Marte struck out looking at three consecutive strikes to end the inning.
Gallen gave up two hits and no additional walks across seven innings.
“He was able to get out of that jam with only one run. Other than that, he pitched pretty well,” Brandon Nimmo said. “Sometimes that happens.”
Nimmo stayed in the game after hyperextending his left knee — not the right knee that hindered him during spring training — on an awkward play in the leftfield corner in the fourth inning. On Gurriel’s double, he appeared to tweak his leg as the ball ricocheted off the wall. Nimmo had a bad limp after getting back on his feet, but after walking and jogging it off convinced Mendoza to let him remain.
Nimmo, who described his knee as “good for the most part,” added that a doctor told him it was stable.
“It almost looked like I got double-bounced on the trampoline,” he said. “Looking at the replay and looking at the knee, it looks like I dodged a bullet. It could’ve been much worse. So we’re going to take it as a good thing .<TH><MK0>.<TH><MK0>. We’ll see how it is in the next 12 hours or so, but I expect to be good to go to play.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
